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Several months ago now I had the good fortune to meet playwright Anjum Malik. Anjum was conducting research into the Native American performers who accompanied Buffalo Bill during their stay in Salford in the later 19th century. This research formed the basis of her play which was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 to celebrate the opening of the BBC North’s new premises at Salford Quays in 2011. I was able to share with Anjum some of the wonderful archival material in the Living Cultures collection related to this historical event, specifically the portrait of Oglala Lakota Chief Red Shirt as taken by Salfordian photographer C.R. Brandis.

Excitingly the completed play will be broadcast this coming Sunday at 20:30. Anjum has kindly acknowledged the support of the Museum on the BBC Radio 3 webpage, for more information please follow the link below:

With the forthcoming British Royal Family wedding the media have their microphones and lenses trained squarely on the happy couple. However, an ancestor of Prince William’s is also receiving some attention, Queen Victoria no less.

Shrabani Basu has recently updated her bookVictoria and Abdul using recently discovered archival material. The book explores Victoria’s relationship with her Indian servant Abdul Karim. Queen Victoria has captured the imagination, and frequently adulation, of the British people and beyond since she assumed the throne in 1837.

A rather out-of-place object in the Living Cultures collection demonstrates this adulation perfectly. It is a bar of soap which was donated to the Museum in 1897 by William Worthington. This particular bar of soap was believed to have been used by the Queen when she visited Manchester on 1st July 1888 to open the Victoria University. Worthington was Head Porter at the time and in the perfect position to collect the soap.

The object was clearly acquired because of it’s imperial association and to commemorate a significant event in Manchester’s history. The soap’s quality is not in doubt but whether is was used by Victoria remains dubious.

The letter is dated 1888 and was written by Buffalo Bill’s secretary S. Hanfield. From November 1887 Buffalo Bill’s Wild West company was encamped on the banks of the River Irwell, Salford, Greater Manchester, and would remain there performing to crowds of local people for several months.

Hanfield states in the letter that he also sent Brode a pair of moccasins which were made at ‘Pine Ridge Indian Agency, Dakota, U.S.A.‘ and worn by Red Shirt during performances. Red Shirt was a Oglala Lakota American Indian and to this day his people live at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota. The photograph, taken by Salford photographer C.R. Brandis, is the only known image of Red Shirt taken during his time in Salford.

In 1928 Mr. Freston, chair of The Manchester Museum Committee at the time, donated a pair of moccasins which he claimed belonged to an ‘Indian Chief’. It is possible that these moccasins are the ones mentioned in the letter.